Volvo OR crews ‘Bruised and Battered’

by Lizzie Green, Volvo OR Media on 18 Nov 2005 As the fleet moves further south and the weather improves, it has given the crews a sunnier outlook and a chance to get their bruised and battered bodies out for inspection.

Although the teams left Vigo ready and raring to go, in as best condition they could, after the first night was damage to boats and also to a few unfortunate crew members. Everyone is aware that the new Volvo Open 70’s are ‘Volvo 60’s on steroids’ as described by Richard Mason onboard Ericsson (Neal McDonald) but they are finding this out first hand now, and the ointment is coming out in full force.

Neal McDonald yesterday recounted, ‘Getting warmer has also allowed the peeling off of a few layers and the chance to compare some of the battle wounds from the first night. Man, have some of the boys collected some whopper bruises - mainly from being washed down the deck into something more solid than the human body. Guillermo (Altadill) has damaged two little fingers and Tommy (Braidwood) his forearm in just this way. Neither complains and both get on with their jobs with little more than the odd wince - but they keep smiling - you have to be crazy to do this race- and certainly you need a good sense of humour.’

ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) also has a few slightly injured crew. What with two of their crew being washed into the steering station and taking it out as well as themselves. Mark ‘Crusty’ Christensen started this leg with a broken arm, but, as a four-race veteran his expertise was needed onboard. So he bravely got on with the job knowing the first few days would be hell for him heading into a storm already injured.

‘The forecast was bad. For me it was not ideal, with a broken arm and with no chance to wear the specially constructed carbon fibre cast that our trainer and shore crew had made, I would just have to be extra careful. So what happens, the first big wave I try to hold on and pain shoots down the arm. Then 24 hrs later Sid (Gavignet) and I get washed back and hit the back lifelines, arm and ribs again. Just more bruising but it all adds up. So now I have had the cast on for two days and it feels much better, although I am limited to driving and trimming. I am sure I will waste away without the grinding and moving sails, but it should save my arm.’

Trimmer and pitman Dave Endean (ABN AMRO ONE) also took an unlucky wave a few days ago, his skipper, Mike Sanderson, seems to relieved that one of his right-hand men is up and about again.

‘Good news for us on board today was that Dave Endean was moving around the boat again and able to do his watches after yesterday taking a heavy wave while up on the bow and badly straining his knee. Jan (Dekker) and Justin (Slattery) are doing an ‘Oh-so-kind and motherly job’ on making sure though that it is all strapped up. We have a really good knee brace on board so that is really helping, keeping him all locked in. It was amazing how by having Dave out of action for a night, dropping from 10 guys down to nine, was a whole lot more work.’

Today, Timo Malinen, Volvo Ocean Race medical co-ordinator, is very proud to say that so far his team has received no requests for medical advice from the yachts since the start.

‘It just goes to show how well prepared these guys are now and how their medical training and kit has been so comprehensive that they can all deal with these situations quite happily on their own. They are all very good at their roles and their hard work is paying off. I would happily be treated by any one of these medics.’

On the race course it is all change in the charge south with ABN AMRO ONE getting a considerable spurt on and overtaking Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) and Ericsson (Neal McDonald) and extending this lead to 35 nautical miles in the past 19 hours. The fleet is now 262 nm to the west of the Cape Verde islands. The young boys (ABN AMRO TWO) in the other Kouyoumdjian-designed yacht must be giving Ericsson something to worry about, over the past 12 hours they have been reeling their prey in. And in the last two hours it’s paid off and we can reveal that they have taken third position from Ericsson at 0400 GMT today with only 4 nm difference.

The crew of wild card, Sunergy and Friends (Grant Wharington) are still as buoyant as ever with Campbell Field (navigator) happily looking forward to his big decisions in the up and coming doldrums. But at present he seems just happy to tell us avidly about life onboard a Volvo Open 70 in what he describes as fun and exhilarating sailing weather.

‘A little bit about the environment I am sitting in right now...I'm sitting here surrounded by black carbon, a couple of PC screens, GPS, Radar and a couple of radios, all we really need to satisfy our IT needs at sea. A few inches above my head is the base of a grinding pedestal that comes through the deck connecting it to a variety of gearboxes and switches to direct the drive to a few of our winches. This also serves to drip water down my back at irregular intervals, half deafen me when it is in use, and it reminds me that next time I go to sea to cut my hair a bit shorter.’

LEG ONE DAY 6 17.11.05, 1600 GMT POSITION REPORT
Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG DTL DTLC LPTS ETA Overall
1 ABN1 16 52.85N 030 31.28W 04608 181 17.4 00000 +00000 7.0 30/11/05 __:__:__ 2
2 BRA1 17 23.80N 029 49.97W 04643 190 14.8 00035 -00015 6.0 01/12/05 __:__:__ 1
3 ABN2 17 33.03N 030 37.94W 04647 188 15.9 00039 -00008 5.0 01/12/05 __:__:__ 4
4 ERIC 17 32.84N 029 57.72W 04651 184 15.0 00043 -00014 4.0 01/12/05 __:__:__ 3
5 SUNF 27 37.35N 025 33.25W 05289 241 10.0 00681 -00063 3.0 11/12/05 __:__:__ 7
6 MOVI 37 07.64N 008 31.80W 06157 000 00.0 01549 -00104 2.0 19/03/06 __:__:__ 5
7 POTC 38 41.54N 009 24.95W 06213 000 00.0 01605 -00104 1.0 23/04/06 __:__:__ 6

ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO 2
BRA1 Brasil 1
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI movistar
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean
SUNF Sunergy and Friends

DTF: Distance to finish, CMG: Course made good, SMG: Speed made good, DTL: distance to leader, DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll.

For position maps of the fleet see:

http://www.volvooceanrace.org/racedatacentre/positionmaps/

Further information can be found at www.volvooceanrace.org